Senate Committee Considers High School Steroid Use

Steroid use in the high schools becomes one of the first issues for this legislative session.

Later today the Senate Judiciary Committee takes testimony on Senator Matt Bartle’s bill requiring school districts to develop a policy discovering and banning steroid use through random testing of high school athletes.He says he has heard high school coaches and high school parents tell of stories their players or children have passed along about high school steroid use. Bartle, from Lee’s Summit, says society bears some of the responsibility for the situation by creating a world so competitive that people look for an edge…and the cheating that gives them the edge athletically, at least, is anabolic steroids. Bartle says steroid use is a hot issue right now at the professional level. He says it’s important to keep steroids away from high schoolers. He says, "It’s very scary out there." He has not decided yet on what the penalties should be for failing to create a program…or for using steroids in high school. He says he’d prefer the penalties be carried out against the team or the school but not the entire district. However, he says, there’s still a lot of work to do on his proposal.